Nukhba (, ), Nukhba Force or Al-Nukhba are naval commandos in a

special forces Special forces and special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

unit of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of

Hamas Hamas (, ; , ; an acronym of , "Islamic Resistance Movement") is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Bri ...

. Israel claims the unit led the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, at the beginning of the

2023 Israel–Hamas war } The ongoing armed conflict between Hamas-led Palestinian militant groups and Israel military forces began on 7 October 2023, 50 years after the start of the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Hamas's coordinated surprise offensive, codenamed "Al-Aqsa Fl ...

. Their main focus is to attack on or underwater, and to infiltrate Israel via its beaches, using underwater explosives and guided missiles which are unaffected by the Iron Dome air defense system. Targets include Israeli infrastructure at sea, military and civilian vessels and power stations.

Training

Nukhba members begin their long and rigorous land and sea-based training when they are 18 to 20 years old, and may be recruited from fishermen. The starting salary of a month is over five times the average salary in the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip (;The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.761 "Gaza Strip /'gɑːzə/ a strip of territory under the control of the Palestinian National Authority and Hamas, on the SE Mediterranean coast including the town of Gaza.. ...

Organization

The Nukhba are distributed geographically across the Gaza Strip.

History

Hamas formed its naval unit in about 2010 after the Gaza War (2008–2009) to strengthen its efforts against Israel and help smuggle weapons into Gaza by sea. In July 2014, four divers emerged from the sea on

Zikim Zikim ( he, זִיקִים) is a kibbutz in southern Israel. Located in the northern Negev desert, it falls under the jurisdiction of Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. In it had a population of . History The kibbutz was established in 1949 on lan ...

Beach armed with

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s and automatic weapons to mount an attack on a tank, but were killed by the IDF. Their units sustained losses in the

2014 Gaza War The 2014 Gaza War, also known as Operation Protective Edge ( he, מִבְצָע צוּק אֵיתָן, translit=Miv'tza Tzuk Eitan, ), was a military operation launched by Israel on 8 July 2014 in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian territory that h ...

. In 2015, they were being trained and equipped in

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. In 2017, some of its members left to join

Islamic State An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

in the

Sinai Peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai (now usually ) (, , cop, Ⲥⲓⲛⲁ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a l ...

. In October 2017, Nukhba commandos were amongst the 14 militants killed when one of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad's tunnels collapsed. By 2018, the underwater commando unit had around 1,500 members. In January 2022, Nukhba divers claimed they had been attacked by a

military dolphin A military marine mammal is a cetacean or pinniped that has been trained for military uses. Examples include bottlenose dolphins, seals, sea lions, and beluga whales. The United States and Soviet militaries have trained and employed oceanic dolph ...

which Israel was using to counter their operations.

2023 Israel–Hamas war

On October 7, Hamas forces invaded Israel, killing more than 1,200 Israelis, mostly civilians. According to Israel's security service '' Shin Bet'', captured Nukhba members were ordered to kill everyone they saw and carry out atrocities against civilians including women and children. If they brought hostages back to Gaza they would be richly rewarded. Naval commandos landed boats on Zikim Beach and stormed the IDF's Zikim training base.

Post 7 October attack

According to an IDF spokesman, the Israeli air force have been specifically targeting Nukhba. ''Shin Bet'' set up a new unit called Nili an abbreviation of the Hebrew phrase () tasked with hunting down Nukhba members. According to the IDF, on October 17, Hamas' fourth most senior commander Ayman Nofal who had responsibility for the Nukhba and the Be'eri and

Re'im music festival massacre On 7 October 2023, the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas initiated a surprise invasion of Israel from the Gaza Strip. As part of the attack, 364 civilians were killed and many more wounded by Hamas at the Supernova Sukkot Gathering ...

s was killed in an airstrike. According to footage the Israeli security services released of interrogation of purportedly captured Nukhba members, Hamas has been using medical facilities in the Gaza Strip, especially the Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, to shield themselves from Israeli strikes and that the underground levels of the hospital are utilized for hiding resources like weapons and ammunition. Hamas denied these claims.

References